212 replies to this topic

[Massive Jawbone]

edit: I give my 2c from a game design standpoint. I don't dislike the game but I question the design of this particular process. ANet is adamant that playing GW2 should be fun and I want to ask them why they failed here because:


Looting in GW2 is not fun in my opinion.
I had this feeling since the first BWE and it stayed with me through all iterations of the Beta/Stress events so far. The experience and actual action of looting in the game feels like an afterthought, even though it's traditionally one of the pillars of the RPG experience.

For those who didn't play the game yet or didn't pay attention:

Looting starts by seeing inconspicuous white sparkles rising from some killed mobs.
After having been able to actually see the white sparkles on for instance snowy ground you need to move to the corpse until a pop-up tells you to press F to loot. Then you spam F, especially if you got more than one corpse to loot.
Depending on if you dis- or enabled Autoloot you will either get a pop-up window or a vertical column of the looted items on the right border of the screen.

There is no sensation of surprise or a visually appealing animation of a new item landing on the ground like in GW1. There is no sound effect when you pick up loot, like a clothy sound of stuffing something into a bag. It's very concealed and it feels inconsequential like it didn't actually happen were it not for the pop-ups telling you that it did.
All in all looting is not an enjoyable experience and it's nothing I am looking forward to after a fight. I'm actually always afraid I didn't loot a corpse properly because the sparkles only disappear a second after you hit F, giving you an ambiguous signal. In fact I have seen countless people in YouTube videos running past sparkling corpses, either because they didn't care or didn't notice it.

I wish lootable corpses were marked better, with a golden aura instead or another visually more obvious effect. There could also be a chime-y sound to give an audible clue.
Hitting F could make a "stuff away" sound to signalise that loot had indeed been picked up. Finally the animated marking effect needs to disappear immediately when F was hit to avoid confusion.


Thoughts, ideas?

Isarien, on 23 August 2012 - 06:57 AM, said:

I agree that adding some audio feedback would enhance looting, at the very least let me know that I did, in fact, loot something. The devs did mention something about a "Sense of hitting" when working on combat audio, I feel like there ought to be a "Sense of getting" for looting.

Nice!

Edited by Massive Jawbone, 24 August 2012 - 02:52 PM.

[Magnetaire]

Agreed. I also think the fact that most loot is crap (since gear is mainly obtained via karma/tokens etc.) doesn't help the case.

[John F Kennedy]

Well there are going to be people in here calling you a whiner... and I disagree with them, but I also disagree with you. I don't really care about looting, I grab my junk off the corpse or out of the chest look at it, and deposit any collectables I get, I truly don't care about a special animation or a unique sound effect. Maybe it's just because none of the games I have played have ever really had these things in them (Have not played any of the original GW campaigns). But all the MMOs, and single player RPGs looting has been something that seems fairly pointless... I halfway wish the items would just go directly into my inventory.

[SerDrak]

Loved the item drop animations in GW1, but I think that having all loot fall on the ground would be insane. That's just me, though. I do wish there was an easier way to spot which corpses are "lootable" and which aren't. The barely noticeable shimmers don't cut it for me.

[Massive Jawbone]

Magnetaire, on 23 August 2012 - 12:05 AM, said:

Agreed. I also think the fact that most loot is crap (since gear is mainly obtained via karma/tokens etc.) doesn't help the case.

Let's not get into that. That is not the point of the topic, this is about the looting, not the loot itself

[Magnetaire]

Massive Jawbone, on 23 August 2012 - 12:06 AM, said:

Let's not get into that. That is not the point of the topic, this is about the looting, not the loot itself

Righto, just a point.

[Shasow]

Looting is fine, I don't see why you have to complain about it.

[Ingway]

Also yes i agree, they could add a more visual way to see the loot, it's easy to miss it sometimes especially during a WvW fight when the loot spawns right below you, i missed alot of bags due to this since i'm moving around alot and i don't notice i just dropped something.

Edited by Frakov, 23 August 2012 - 06:54 AM.
Removed response to deleted post

[Lycrus]

while i find it hilarious to complain about the looting in gw2...i actually agree with the OP.

You COULD..and i mean COULD (not MUST or SHOULD) simply could improve the looting with an animation or sound or a better visual efefct. its nothing big..its just something where you run around in the world, you loot a corpse and you go "hm..could have been abit better animated and/or shown" and move along.

[Fozzik]

I totally agree with the original poster. I've been hoping they would at least add a sound effect for auto loot...it's annoying having to look down in the corner every time to see if I successfully looted.

[ArcViper]

As nitpicky and inconsequential as this is, I think I have to agree with you.  In GW2 I'm looting corpses left and right without even noticing most of the time.  Then I go to check my inventory and half-wonder when it got so damn full.  And yes, it is easy to miss on loot in crowded areas sometimes.

A little more visual or aural feedback would make the simple act of looting a bit more satisfying, and also help you to NOTICE what you're actually looting instead of wondering when that awesome greatsword made its way into your bags.

[The Trouble With Me]

I know what you mean; I see sparkles and I don't care. It's more like how I remember having to pick up lego from the floor when done playing with it. Gimme some chimes or a harp if I get something good

[MyTabbycat]

I like it. You can either mouse click twice to pick up your loot or while you are still fighting mobs you can hit your F key twice and pick up loot and not break combat. How can you not love fighting and looting at the same time? It's epic.

[soxx]

I like not have to click on each individual thing on the ground and after a de running around spamming f over a mound of corpses was pretty fun for me.

That being said I agree with the suggestion for a more obvious visual clue that loot is there.  And a "loot sound" would be fantastic (as long as there's an option to turn it off for people who may not like it).

[Ingway]

Maybe make a bigger glow? I mean the current one is incredibly weak, i missed so many of the loot bags in WvW because of how small and soundless the loot bag is... i hope they improve it alot still...

[Reiden221]

I would like a sound added as if you were stuffing items into your back.  They had that sound everytime you opened your bag in Ultima Online and I thought it was awesome.

I very much disagree with this though...

Massive Jawbone, on 23 August 2012 - 12:03 AM, said:

it should be one of the pillars of the RPG experience.

It's an mmoRPG.  Role Playing Game.  I don't know about you but my role is not to loot.  It is just a tedious afterthought.  My role is the adventure, the fight, the struggle, the victory.  Looting is just what you do after the fun is over so I have no expectations of looting to be fun.  Just easy and quick, which they have done in my opinion.

[lokiie1984]

I agree that the act of looting could be better, sound effects would be nice. (Depending on the material a different sound would play, or the very least a generic sound to show i looted it.) I did however have no issue spotting lootable corpses on my melee character, since the loot pop up would show as soon as it was dead. I could see it being an issue on ranged or maybe melee during events.

I would imagine we didn't get any kind of looting animation due to the game being so fast paced and people just want to kill and move on, rather then watching their character kneel down for a couple seconds before being able to move again, or sliding for the next ten steps as the character finishes the animation.

[Antzehel]

i won't think you have to always loot... once you got afew item and money... you can go explore and harvest ore/plant/wood and try your best at crafting cooking w/e and make money from it

[Spark026]

Lycrus, on 23 August 2012 - 12:14 AM, said:

while i find it hilarious to complain about the looting in gw2...i actually agree with the OP.

Agree.  While I could personally careless, it absolutely could be improved, and the OP was very constructive, so I applaud that

[Psikerlord]

Hmm I'd love a loot animation/sound where you pick up the corpse and shake the loot out of it onto the ground. I'd pay for that in the cash shop.

[Shamadamun]

The little things are important, and while I am absolutely 100% against extra sparklies or glowing effects to further trash immersion, I'm totally up for better sound effects.

But seriously, the less glowing we have the better. I remember when Blizzard implemented glowing for quest items. One of the worst days I can remember for that game. Instead of having to think or actually look for things, it just taught you to drool on your keyboard while clicking shiny objects, completely oblivious to what said objects really are. Promote thinking, not droning.

A little bit of a stretch, but things like this worry me.

/endrant

In regards to just looting in general, I enjoy it. Maybe it's the fact that I want to be completely immersed in my games, but I love the idea of rumaging through some dead creatures stuff to get loot - regardless if it's useless or not. It's the little things that make games for me.

Edited by Shamadamun, 23 August 2012 - 12:25 AM.

[Rynhardt]

Killing feels good, but looting doesn't, I agree. Most people won't realize it, but in video games, it's really important that it feels good to do what you should be doing. That includes special graphics, noises, whatever. It's a simple way of guiding the player without having to straight up tell them "attack the bad guys" and it's been a part of game design for years. When you take damage in a video game, the screen might blink red and make a displeasing sound, it's teaching you to not get hit without saying "Getting hit is bad!" The same thing happens when you pick up power ups, it makes a rewarding sound and possibly even an eye-pleasing graphic. That's how looting should feel, but it really doesn't. Sometimes you even forget to, and it doesn't help that the items you pick up are scrolled off on the side of the screen like they're not important.

[Ingway]

Psikerlord, on 23 August 2012 - 12:20 AM, said:

Hmm I'd love a loot animation/sound where you pick up the corpse and shake the loot out of it onto the ground. I'd pay for that in the cash shop.

I don't think that'll happen... you would need to stop dead in your tracks everytime you get loot, i'm pretty sure that's not their intention.

[4arsie4]

I think gold should go straight to the player, there is no decision there for the player to make, they have no reason not to take the gold. For items, they have to balance their priorities and manage their bag space, so I don't mind picking up loot. It will really help if the loot button is not the same as the other action buttons. So we can spam loot without accidentally talking to someone or activating an item.

I would be quite saddened if loot assisting items appear in the cash shop. Like a loot-skritt that follows you around or something. Especially if such a loot assisting item only works for a fixed amount of time.

Edited by 4arsie4, 23 August 2012 - 12:27 AM.

[MsCass]

About the only way I would change the looting would make it even more inconsequential in the poster's eyes.  I like the area looting they had in SW:TOR (one of only a very few things I liked about that game).  I just want to pick up all my stuff and keep on with the killing.

[Khaal]

A better audio clue that you had successfully looted?  /signed

A visually larger indicator of loot than the sparkles?  /notsigned

Massive Jawbone, on 23 August 2012 - 12:03 AM, said:

it should be one of the pillars of the RPG experience.

In my opinion, loot is one of the worst things to happen to RPGs.  I understand how and why they work, but I feel like it does incredible harm to RPGs.  Why do I need to collect 400 pairs of pants, and why does a spider drop pants anyway?  In my opinion, loot should only drop where appropriate and should only drop loot appropriate to it's former owner.

Edited by Khaal, 23 August 2012 - 12:28 AM.

[Rukioish]

I always kinda hoped GW2 community would be a cut above the rest of the MMO crowd, but it turns out communties always end up degenerating to complaining about such trivial things. Whether or not it's "constructive critism" about the game, do you honestly feel like you have nothing better to do that nitpick at every little minor detail that YOU feel is ruining your experience? Do you want this game to reward you and pat you on the back everytime you do something? Do you really feel like looting is such a tasking thing that you need some kinda of shiny lettering and sound effects? Do you feel like Anet should take the time from preparing for launch so that you can get your own personal little wooshing sound every time you loot something so you can feel better about yourself?

really, I mean really? Is this board gonna turn into an endless cry fest until this game turns into a homogenized easymode game just like every other MMO because everyone feels like the game is out to get them?

[Ashanor]

I agree. I have always hated the looting. At the very least we should have sounds.

[mickst3r8]

I agree with the poster.

The ones that say they don't care about the looting has this mentality because they believe the gw2 loots are all junk, which so far I think this is the case as armor/weapons can be purchased by karma and other means.
However, the looting system itself (not the loots) is infact very bland and does not give you any sense of looting at all.
In other mmorpgs, when you loot something from a corpse there would be a sound effect as the poster mentioned, this is not the case in gw2, it makes the whole looting experience feel kind of... empty in a way with no purpose and just plain boring. In addition to the white sparkly hard to notice animation coming from the corpse this just makes the whole looting system flaud.

[Ashanor]

Rukioish, on 23 August 2012 - 12:29 AM, said:

I always kinda hoped GW2 community would be a cut above the rest of the MMO crowd, but it turns out communties always end up degenerating to complaining about such trivial things. Whether or not it's "constructive critism" about the game, do you honestly feel like you have nothing better to do that nitpick at every little minor detail that YOU feel is ruining your experience? Do you want this game to reward you and pat you on the back everytime you do something? Do you really feel like looting is such a tasking thing that you need some kinda of shiny lettering and sound effects? Do you feel like Anet should take the time from preparing for launch so that you can get your own personal little wooshing sound every time you loot something so you can feel better about yourself?

really, I mean really? Is this board gonna turn into an endless cry fest until this game turns into a homogenized easymode game just like every other MMO because everyone feels like the game is out to get them?

Just because something is trivial to you doesn't mean it is to others. It is pretty standard to have loot sounds etc in MMOs these days.